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January 16, 2009

Drafting Settings Part 4B -- Dynamic Input, Cont.

Last time on LT Unlimited, I continued the tour of the Drafting Settings dialog with the first half of the Dynamic Input settings. And now, the conclusion. (Of Part 4, that is. There's still Part 5.)

I'll pick up again with the "Settings" button for Pointer Input.

There are two pairs of options regarding the format of input for "second or next points", such as when you begin the Move command, pick your first point, and are asked for the second. You can choose between Polar (distance,angle) or Cartesian (x,y) input. The default is Polar, but personally, I'm more likely to know the X and Y values of my distance rather than the distance and angle, so I switched it. Your method may vary. You can also choose here whether you want AutoCAD LT to assume the numbers you're giving it are relative coordinate, or absolute. It defaults to relative, so if you want to move something to (0,0) or another actual coordinate point, you need to preface the input with the pound sign (#). Now you see why you don't have to type @ any more to force relative coordinates!

The second category is about when the input tooltip is visible. The default is that it will show up whenever you're asked for a point, but you can also choose to delay its appearance until you start typing, or force it to display all the time.

The final dialog in the Dynamic Input tab is the Settings dialog for Dimension Input.

Here, you can choose how many input fields you want to see at a time. There are five possible input fields: Resulting Dimension, Length Change, Absolute Angle, Angle Change, and Arc Radius. The default is to see 2 fields at once, but you can also show only one, or any combination of the five.

No matter which visibility setting you choose, you can cycle through all available fields by pressing TAB. Remember than not every field applies in every command or for every object. For example, Arc Radius doesn't apply to lines.

All right, that's it for Dynamic Input! Next up, last but not least...Quick Properties.